Sounds for Saturday--Polkateers, Lillian Brooks, Spike Jones, The Galens, more!!

This playlist is pretty all-over-the-place, even by this blog's standards. All-over-the-place is good, Leethinks.

The Polkateers' Village Polka features laughing breaks straight from Spike Jones, while Spike Jones' version of Memories Are Made of This features barking breaks straight from The Singing Dogs. (I've always wanted to type "barking breaks straight from the Singing Dogs.") We'll assume that Spike used the same tape-splicing technique as Carl Weismann--though I could swear I saw a photo someplace of Jones waving a baton in front of a group of dogs. Maybe they were lip-synching to the recording.

I have no idea what I just typed.

Bob La Mont's Dim Dim the Lights is a pretty decent cover of the Bill Haley hit--very big-bandish in the manner of the Waldorf Music Hall tracks I recently put up. And "Bob La Mont" (with a space between La and Mont) yields two Google matches. "Lewis Everette's Orchestra" brings up zero. A famous record, obviously. I had to do some fancy MAGIX work to get the thing not to sound distant and muffled.

Hercules, as sung by Vaughn Monroe, is from the Steve Reeves movie. So says the label, anyway, though I sure as heck don't remember hearing it in the titles. Maybe they were going to include it but changed their mind, figuring the movie was campy enough without it. Monroe took a lot of grief (from Spike Jones and others) for his from-the-throat singing style, but notice how clearly and smoothly he articulates the awkward Hercules lyrics. "And he battled a herd of man-eating mares and he scattered them far and wide," for example. Give the man some credit.

Erksine Hawkins' After Hours (written Avery Parrish, who plays piano on this) is the daddy of Johnny Otis' Midnight in the Barrelhouse and Bill Doggett's Honky Tonk, along with scores of other relaxed, smokey, slow-swing blues numbers. (I've always wanted to type.... Never mind.) You might notice the famous Hucklebuck stop-time riff, which shows up near the beginning and quickly departs. I'm tempted to call After Hours ahead of its time, though, in reality, its imitators were simply behind theirs.


Village Polka--The Polkateers. (Step aside, Spike Jones.)

Marcella--Castelles (1954). (Early R&R was known for its amateurish lyrics. I have no idea why.)

Hercules (Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick)--Vaughn Monroe with Norman Leyden Orch. and Chorus, 1959.

Baby I Do Love You (Leonard Grainger-Pepper Davis)--The Galens, 1963.

Love Bells (Keith Colley-Charlotte O'Hara)--The Galens, 1963.

Cash on the Barrel Head (Ira and Charley Louvin)--The Louvin Brothers, 1956.

Dim Dim the Lights--Bob La Mont with Lewis Everette's Orchestra. (From Gateway Top Tune 1104.)

Bells of St. Mary--Lee Andrews and the Hearts, 1954.

Hiawatha (Bob Davie)--Budd McCoy, 1959. (Produced by Charles Grean.)

Memories Are Made of This (Gilkyson-Dehr-Miller)--Spike Jones and His City Slickers; Vocal by Gil Bernal and Ole Svenson's Canine 9; 1956.

Say You're Mine (Bass-Tate-Edwards-Stigler)--Lillian Brooks with Lew Douglas Orch., 1958.

Peyton Place (Yuffy-Bass-Tate)--Lillian Brooks with Lew Douglas Orch., 195 .

Dead Skunk (In the Middle of the Road) (Loudon Wainwright)--Little Jimmy Dickens, 1973.

Daybreak (Grofe-Adamson)--Frank Sinatra with Sy Oliver Orch., 1961.

After Hours (Parrish)--Erskine Hawkins and His Orch., with Avery Parrish, piano; 1940.


Have a great Saturday!


Lee

New Vinton County Frogwhompers in Concert Tomorrow

I received this e-mail from Gary L. Molina, Managing Director of the Ohio Valley Summer Theater.

He gave me permission to quote:

"I ran across your page while searching for New Vinton County Frogwhompers info. You may be interested to know that you can hear the Frogwhompers in concert this friday evening at 10 pm in Athens, OH. It's a one shot concert, first time in 30 years. All the band members (Jim McGaw, Charlie Lewis, Terry Douds and Jim Prouty) are part of a reunion of The Appalachian Green Parks Project. It's at ARTS/West 132 W. State Street in Athens. Appalachian Green Park Project starts at 8 pm. Frogwhompers will start between 10 and 10:30. The best way to get a seat for the Frogwhompers is to see Green Parks first, and then stay in your seat.

Tickets to Appalcahian Green Parks Project are at http://www.ovst.org/ or by calling 740-593-9696.

You also may be interested to know that the Frogwhompers are reissuing their LPs on CD in a two disc set. The second disc will be entirely unreleased material from a planned third LP which was never completed.

CDs will be available on Friday at ARTS/West, and then on Charlie & Celia's website."

Not too long ago, I featured the Frogwhompers' Rocky Racoon and Done Stomped on My Heart and got a lot of nice feedback--some of it from folks who remembered the sides in question. In fact, I put the second number up after receiving a request.

The CD releases are welcome news. Here's the website Gary mentioned: Charlie and Celia .

I won't be able to see the concert, but... I'm hoping some of my local readers might want to. If so, this is their chance.

I'm sure no actual frogs will be whomped during the performance. (Sorry. Best I can do with an allergy-stuffed head....)

And... I reactivated the previously-featured NVCF tracks, both gems:

Rocky Racoon (Lennon-McCartney)--New Vinton County Frogwhompers (Marching, Singing, Strumming & Plucking Society).

Done Stomped on My Heart (Mason Williams)--New Vinton County Frogwhompers (Marching, Singing, Strumming & Plucking Society).




Lee

Variations on The Star Spangled Banner

My latest composition, straight from my Noteworthy Composer software to my Optimus tape deck and back to MAGIX.

I'd planned to do a longer piece--more variations on SSB, maybe. Or a patriotic suite. Didn't have time, though. Wrote this in about an hour. As usual, I spent more time adding effects than I spent on the notes.

Most of it was in my head already--I came up with the basic form while cutting the grass today. Seriously. I finalized my strategies--such as, using the first eight bars of SSB with "Stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni" from Yankee Doodle zooming by in the background. And I figured I'd fiddle with pieces of the SSB, too, repeating them at different tempos. Anything to make the familiar melody sound detached. Enigmatic, even.

My statement? None. I just thought it would be fun to do some over-the-top "variations" on my country's National Anthem.


Variations on The Star Spangled Banner (Lee Hartsfeld, 2007).



Lee

Let Freedom Ding! Part 2

I've got so much stuff to link to, I don't know if I'll be able to.

Such is the challenge and excitement of... BLOGGING!! (Blogging theme music, fade.)

Yeee-haa!

Yes, I'm feeling fine. You? Good, good. Actually, my allergies are kicking up again, but that's a constant. As ever, when my sinuses are hurting, the guys on TV are reporting LOW pollen counts. The big question: who's paying them off? Mother Nature??

That would be a scandal to end all scandals. ("Mother Natures Pays Off Local Weather Reporters--Caught on Tape.") That would put Ohio back in the national spotlight.

Rudy doesn't appreciate my sense of humor. I just said, "The red cats are coming! The red cats are coming!" He gave me this look like, "Idiot."

March for Americans (Ferde Grofe)--Meredith Willson and His Concert Orch., 1941.

George M. Cohan Medley--Ferrante and Teicher (Can we assume 1976?).

Jim Bridger (L. Payne)--Johnny Horton, 1960.

Next, my most serious offering of all. This is pre-Columbia Banjo Barons, in case that's important:

Americana Medley--The Banjo Barons, 1959.

Texas Vs. Alaska (L. Williams)--Lawton Williams, 1958.

The Battle of New Orleans (J. Driftwood)--Vaughn Monroe with Norman Leyden Orch., 1959.

The Stars and Stripes Forever (Sousa)--The Thunderer (Recorded in Amsterdam), 1958.

The National Emblem March (Bagley)--The United States Marine Band, 1914.

Pledge of Allegiance; The Star Spangled Banner--Kathryn Hume, Grace Lynn Martin.

Brandywine Quick-Step--Janice Beck, playing the Noehren organ in the First Baptist Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Liberty Bell March (Sousa)--Pride of the 48 Band. From Somerset label.

Yankee Doodle Boy--George M. Cohan, Jr., 1948.

Washington's March (Anon.)--Janice Beck, playing the Noehren organ in the First Baptist Churh, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Medley: The Pledge of Allegiance, The Star Spangled Banner--Tennessee Ernie Ford.

The Star Spangled Banner--Prince's Band, 1916.

Irving Berlin's This Is a Great Country might sound like your typical reaction to Vietnam-era protest, but it was written in 1962.

This Is a Great Country (Irving Berlin)--The Lawrence Welk Singers and Orch., 1976.

Your Land and My Land (S. Romberg--D. Donnelly)--The Lawrence Welk Singers and Orch., 1976.

The following side was a pretty big hit in 1980:

Voice of Freedom--Jim Kirk and the TM Singers, 1980.

America the Beautiful (Bates-Ward)--Men's Chorus of the Salem United Church of Christ (Parkston, South Dakota).

American Salute (Gould)--National Symphony Orch., conducted by Howard Mitchell.

Lee

Adventures on eBay. Or, "Everybodys Shipping Policies Are Differrent."

Or maybe it should be "at eBay." Not sure.

I'm not sure about the latest dealer I'm dealing with, either. I made the mistake of assuming that her "flat rate" shipping meant, well, flat rate. Just to be sure I'm not nuts, I Googled "flat rate" and discovered that the phrase, shipping-wise, usually refers to a flat rate.

But this dealer doesn't combine shipping. It's a flat rate per item. Cute, huh? A little play on English, I guess.

Which comes out to $14.99 for three records--a 78, a 45, and a 10" LP. About a pound and a half--if that--plus packing. Five times the combined cost of the items!!

I suggested to her that $14.99 is ridiculous, and she said I shouldn't have assumed she'd combine shipping. In fact, here's part of what she wrote:

"That is Something That Should Have Been Asked Prior To Bidding Not After Everybodys Shipping Policies Are Differrent."

That Was Not Edited In Any Way.

Ohhhh-kay. Anyway, it's true that she didn't promise to combine shipping, so I guess I ass-umed.

What happened is, after I won the first item--a promo 45 of Paul Whiteman's Capitol versions of San and Wang Wang Blues--I figured I may as well bid on a couple of other low-min.-bid items. You know, to get the most of the flat shipping rate. Which I certainly did. $14.99 worth.

Most of my 'Bay experiences, by the way, have been good to excellent. In fact, I just received a quick and friendly refund for two 78s broken in the mail--that dealer couldn't have been nicer. This dealer, however, has issues. I mean, Has Issues.

I sent the full amount to Ms. Sunny Service, of course. The feedback I give her might not be pretty....

Her return policy is unspecified, by the way. Not that it matters. Suppose these three records turn out not to be as described, condition-wise. If I were to demand a refund (and she actually gives me one), I'd get all of $1.97. You know, the cost of the items, minus shipping. Wanna bet?

(Spike Jones interlude, fade)

Then again, it would be fun to make a fuss over $1.97. Depends on what the records look like. And what my mood is.

I feel sorry for anyone whose typical eBay experience is like this.


Lee

Rudy presents... Let Freedom Ding!

Patriotic kitsch? Of the musical kind? Here? At this place?

Rudy says, "Ah-yup." Well, I'm not sure it all falls into the kitsch category. Most of it, yes. But all of it?

I mean, for instance, there's.... There's.... Um....

Yeah.

On to the music.

We begin with George Schweinfest on the piccolo, 1901-style--this one sure took some EQ'ing. And some click splicing. Sonic surgery of the roughest sort. But I guess the miracle is that a 106-year-old disc would even play in the first place:

Medley of American National Airs--George Schweinfest, 1901. From Columbia 78.

This swinging version of Jimmie Driftwood's Battle of New Orleans (the big hit for Johnny Horton) is Countrypolitan-smooth. I've always wanted to type "Countrypolitan-smooth":

Battle of New Orleans (Jimmie Driftwood)--Floyd Cramer.

This next one was produced by Charles (The Thing; Never Been Kissed) Grean. I wonder how many takes this took? ("Takes this took"?) The words are a mouthful:

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (Bob Davie)--Buddy McCoy, 1959.

If I knew Sousa like I should know Sousa, I'd be able to I.D. this march right away. Alas....

Assuming it is Sousa:

American Eagle Polka--The Polkateers.

A cute number for kids:

The Spirit of '76 (White)--Marni Nixon.

Now for a toe-tappin', flag-rippling, Heritage-honoring ditty by George (I Ran All the Way Home) Weiss and Jule (People; It's Magic) Styne:

Johnny Freedom (G. Weiss-J. Styne)--Johnny Horton, 1960.

Next, Tennesse Ernie Ford's bitter version of Woody Guthrie's joyous statement abou.... Er, maybe I got that backwards. Great rendition, anyway:

This Land Is Your Land (Guthrie)--Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Elevator Americana from the 101 Strings, though I could swear I hear 104 on the first track:

John Henry--101 Strings.

Cornbelt Symphony--Same guy.

More patriotic pulse-pounders, including Ferde Grofe's Desert Water Hole movement (from Death Valley Suite), featuring a wonderful Stephen Foster medley. Henry Van Dyke's 1909 poem, America for Me, appears all over the 'Net, though the credit doesn't always go to Henry. Amazing, how some public-domain works end up being rewritten, word for word, by other people decades after the fact. For a good laugh, do a Google look and find the poem's "other" authors.

"A Google look"? Did I coin a new phrase? (Hm. Only five matches for "A Google look" on Google):

America--Our Heritage (Helen Steele)--Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians; arranged by Hawley Ades, 1954.

You're a Grand Old Flag (Cohan)--George M. Cohan, Jr., 1948.

Semper Fidelis (Sousa)--Ferrante and Teicher, 1952.

Desert Water Hole (Ferde Grofe, from Death Valley Suite)--National Symphony Orch., cond. by Howard Mitchell, circa 1962.

America for Me (Henry Van Dyke)--Vincent Price.


More "Let Freedom Ding" to come! (That sounded strange....)



Lee and Rudy, your hosts